A Response to the Canadian Armed Forces Military Personnel Instructions 03/26

Lutheran Church–Canada Statement

A Response to the Canadian Armed Forces Military Personnel Instructions

On July 29 of this year, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) issued a new national policy which prohibits chaplains in a public or semi-public setting from praying or using words, actions or symbols relating to their faith tradition. Instead, they will be required to offer public spiritual reflections without any reference to God, the divine or the transcendent. Lutheran Church-Canada is deeply concerned over this new policy.

The policy cites a 2015 Supreme Court of Canada decision, also known as the “Saguenay decision”. The decision ruled that a public body must remain neutral regarding religion. Under the banner of “state neutrality” the CAF has adopted a policy which now requires its chaplains to offer what we consider a secular humanist/materialist reflection in place of prayer.

Chaplains can still hold religious services in spaces where attendance is voluntary, but reference to God or the divine in public events like Remembrance Day ceremonies and military events is prohibited. At such public events, chaplains are compelled to offer “spiritual reflections” and are forbidden from any reference to God.

The Military Personnel Instruction states, “In military settings, spiritual reflections are inclusive public addresses to a group of individuals that nurture resilience by fostering meaning, purpose, and spiritual well-being within a culture of care and service.” For Lutheran Church–Canada chaplains and many other chaplains of other spiritual faith traditions (SFT)the means and tools to foster meaning, purpose and spiritual well-being are through applying their theology. Without God our chaplains are stripped of their ability to serve and are forced to act against their conscience.

Chaplains are to serve as representatives of their spiritual faith tradition not as a theoretically neutral actors. We believe that trying to make them such does not take dogma out of their mouth but merely replaces it with a secular humanist dogma.

Prior to this new directive, at public and semi-public events, chaplains were directed to provide a preamble to their prayers by saying that they would be praying according to their own SFT. If there were others present of a different SFT, they were welcome to use that prayer time to pray quietly according to their own faith. If there were those who had no faith, they could use the time for personal meditation.

The requirement and insistence that all chaplains pray and speak strictly according to humanistic teaching is the furthest thing from state neutrality.

Ironically, the new policy allows for exceptions as, for example, in the singing of the Royal Anthem (God save the King) and the Nation Anthem (God keep our land). The policy argues that these anthems provide a continuity of tradition and so it is legitimate to sing them with their references to God.

The second major exception is the inclusion of “Indigenous practices…(which) support reconciliation objectives and efforts to strengthen relationships between CAF members and Indigenous peoples.” It continues, “CAF members or attendees are not required to participate in any spiritual component of these practices.” This was the intent of the preamble that chaplains were expected to provide under the previous policy.

Clearly this new policy violates the notion of state neutrality which the policy references to justify this new dictate.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms lists “freedom of conscience and religious freedom” as the first among the Fundamental Freedoms. This new policy requires chaplains to violate their conscience and speak the philosophy of humanism to the exclusion of all other faiths. This is a clear violation of the most basic of human rights which are protected by the Charter.

Therefore Lutheran Church–Canada respectfully requests:

1. That military chaplains be supported and protected in the exercise of their pastoral responsibilities according to their conscience, and that the CAF recognize and affirm the Charter protections of freedom of conscience and religion in determining the appropriate role of chaplains in official military ceremonies to prevent potential moral injuries for chaplains;
2. That the maintenance of a brief moment of prayer led by a chaplain in a ceremony that is otherwise free of any religious components be seen as a form of including people of faith rather than excluding those with no belief.
3. That the “Canadian Armed Forces Military Personnel Instructions 03/26 – Spiritual reflections in military settings” be rescinded.

God keep our land glorious and free! Amen.

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